Jamie noticed that Lily was ignoring him. Whenever he came near, she gave him the cold shoulder. Jamie tried not to mind too much. Lily was probably just shy. After all, they hadn’t seen each other in a year… He knew things would be awkward after spending such a long time away from each other, but this was just too much.

He managed to corner her in the bathroom. A little over the top, yes, but desperate times lead to desperate measures. Jamie stepped in after her and closed the door behind them.

“Lils, we need to talk,” he said.

“Jamie! Get out!” Lily hissed, clearly not happy about him following her in there. She pushed him hard in the chest. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?!”

Jamie stood his ground and caught hold of her small wrists as she tried to push him again. Lily struggled at first against his grip, then she let out a little sob and gave up.

“Can’t you just leave me alone!” she said miserably.

Jamie let go of her wrists and she sat down on the toilet seat, head in her hands.

“What’s up? You’ve been avoiding me all year,” he said, trying to make eye contact. She ignored this completely.

Lily didn’t say anything at first. She wiped her nose with the back of her hand and glared at him from the toilet seat. She looked so small sitting there, hugging her legs tightly against her torso. Her black fringe covering her electric blue eyes just slightly. Jamie just wanted to kneel down next to her and kiss her. But he got a feeling that that would not improve the situation the slightest.

“Don’t act like you don’t know,” Lily said in a low and bitter voice. Her blue eyes flashed as they met his for a split second.

Jamie blinked at her.

“What? What have I done wrong?”

“You didn’t think that they would reach me, did you? The rumours, I mean. But I have ears too, Jamie, and I know all about that girl you’ve been seeing.”

Jamie leaned on the door behind him, arms crossed. He gave a loud, long sigh. This was just typical.

“Lily, you’ve got it all wrong --”

She flew up from the seat, suddenly venomous, and her hair on end. She looked slightly crazy.

“Don’t say that! Don’t you dare say that! I know what I heard!”

Jamie put his hands up, feeling slightly alarmed. This wasn’t going quite as well as he had hoped…

“OK, OK. Calm down!”

“Don’t tell me to calm down, Mister!”

“Rumours can be misleading, is all I’m trying to say.”

Lily glared at him through squinting eyes, “So, what.”

“I don’t know what you heard, but Rita and I are just--”

“What? Friends? And you expect me to believe that bull?”

“What? No! I mean, yes. No, what I mean is we’re just colleagues. We both work at the garage. It’s nothing more to it than that, Lily, I swear. I’ve been trying to call you all summer. I’ve missed you.”

Lily seemed to shrink on the spot. She sat back down on the toilet seat, looking small and helpless again. Neither of them spoke for a long time. Jamie was wondering if he had maybe said too much. He had pictured her to be happy to see him. Why wasn’t she? Had she really taken those rumours that seriously? He wanted to hurt whoever had started them rumours really, really badly. He wanted to smash their face into a brick wall… He wanted to take his anger and disappointment out on that person. Everything had been going so well before Lily went off to college. College had turned her against him, it seemed. How he hated college…

Lily slowly stood up.

“Jamie,” she said in a small voice. “I need some time to think, get my head sorted and all that Hollywood crap.”

What did she mean? Did she want to take a break? But they had been taking a break this whole year! This was a joke. It had to be. Where had his Lily gone? He searched her face for any sign of his Lily, but he couldn’t find her.

“You mean like a break?” He said with more confidence than he felt.

It took her a little while to answer, as if she was making up her mind.

OK, these pictures were REALLY delayed by my computer breaking down. Three months later it's working again and I finally managed to get some pictures of this. So here are the belated pictures of Elsa growing up:

Vince holding Elsa and Elsa waving at the candles on the cake (you can't see them because I had to zoom in a lot -- the darn wall kept getting in the way!)